I'm ready, ready for the laughing gas/I'm ready, ready for what's next

Mar 11, 2007

XM gospel and The Secret

Been hearing about The Secret a lot recently. Oprah seems to be on a big kick about it...as are others. Well, I think I figured out what the secret really is...

A few days ago, as I was walking back to the bakery to get to work in the morning, pushing my 3 or 4 shopping carts (we somehow use them all), I had a lot of things on my mind. This is typically normal for me; but this past week or two I've been in a different kind of funk. Not depressed, just lots on my mind. Most of it has to do with only getting the occasional day off, and not two days in a row or anything; so just a general feeling of being tired and weary (shovelling snow, 50 lb bags of cake mix, and moving pallets of food around can do that to you).

So...I was just walking back to the bakery, pushing my carts, lost in my own mind (but still alert for forklifts). Scene set. We have XM Radio or some other satellite service that pumps music throughout most of the store; our little corner gets nothing but our blown out boombox. Normally we tend to listen to a lot of 80's hair metal...yick...but they decided to put on some hit list station for that morning.

Two songs in particular stuck out to me. First, that one song that all the radio stations can't seem to stop playing...that one song that Jelani likes...goes something like:

"I keep on waiting, waiting/ Waiting for the world (song) to change."

Or something like that. Hideous song, equally stupid music video. Bad artist all around. Anyways, the song seems to be the current message that keeps being said around the world: everyone wants change. They don't know what they really want, but go ahead and change the status quo anyway. Anything is better than what we currently have, right? We got the war in Iraq going on, Bush is still in office, the Vikings suck, everything just seems to be going downhill, huh?

So as the song closes..."Keep on waiting, waiting...waiting for the world to change," the next song that the playlist (or DJ) decides to play is essentially the answer to that cry.

See the world in green and blue See China right in front of you See the canyons broken by clouds See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out See the Bedouin fires at night See the oil fields at first light and See the bird with a leaf in her mouth After the flood all the colors came out

And then later...

What you don't have you don't need it now What you don't know you can feel it somehow What you don't have you don't need it now Don't need it now It was a beautiful day

U2's Beautiful Day, if you haven't figured it out. And once again, Bono's lyrics speak volumes. A song of hopelessness followed by a song that practically shouts "HEY! It's already better! Things got better a long time ago! There is a way out, that you can take, right now! How can it not be a beautiful day?"

I don't know. Once again, I'm having trouble writing what I'm thinking, or remembering how I felt at the time. But it just struck me as important, you know? Yeah, this world sucks. It's pretty messed up. But things are going to better. Christ is coming, and in a sense, is already here. While we might still struggle in the dirt, sometimes even enjoying it, ultimately we are clean and will be clean. And the only way that is accomplished is through Christ.